Data stores, such as, for example, disk drives and flash-based storage, are most efficient when writing data sequentially and are very inefficient when writing randomly scattered data. In addition, disk drives are most efficient when reading sequential data and are very inefficient when reading randomly scattered data. A typical modern disk drive is capable of moving approximately 700 kilobytes (KB) of data in an amount of time taken for the disk drive to seek an arbitrary location on a disk. As technology advances, disk drives may be capable of moving larger amounts of data during a same time period.
Most data transfers are much smaller than 700 KB. As a result, disk drives may spend a significant amount of time seeking locations on disks during non-idle time periods.